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113-429: In the years following Schiff's death in 1920, the firm was led by Otto Kahn (died 1934) and Felix Warburg (died 1937), men who had already solidified their roles as Schiff's able successors. However, the firm's fortunes began to fade following the end of World War II in 1945 - it failed to keep pace with a rapidly changing investment-banking industry, in which Kuhn, Loeb's old-world, genteel ways, did not seem to fit;

226-414: A "surge generator". Strauss ultimately provided tens of thousands of dollars to this venture. Through Szilard, Strauss met other nuclear physicists , such as Ernest Lawrence . Strauss talked to scientists who had left Nazi Germany and learned about atom-related experiments that had taken place there. Szilard kept him up to date on developments in the area, such as the discovery of nuclear fission and

339-564: A 443-acre (179 ha) estate on Long Island , and had Oheka Castle (from O tto He rmann Ka hn ) built as its centerpiece. At 109,000 square feet (10,100 m ), the 127-room structure was designed as the second-largest private residence in the United States (after George Vanderbilt 's 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m ) Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina) by Delano & Aldrich of New York City; its landscaping

452-721: A ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Born in 1903, she was the daughter of Jerome J. Hanauer, who was one of the Kuhn Loeb partners. She was a New York native who had attended Vassar College and was a skilled equestrian and potter. The couple had two sons, one of whom did not survive early childhood. While in New York, they lived on Central Park West , then on the Upper East Side , and later on Central Park South . Strauss had involvements in

565-546: A comparatively short time. The English mode of life, both political and social, appealed to him, and eventually he became a naturalized British subject. In 1893, he accepted an offer from Speyer and Company of New York and went to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life. On January 8, 1896, Kahn married Addie Wolff and following the couple's year-long tour of Europe, Kahn joined Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in New York City, where his father-in-law, Abraham Wolff,

678-454: A few scientists, who strongly felt that development of the new weapon was essential to U.S. security in the face of a hostile, nuclear-capable, ideological enemy. Thus, in the absence of Strauss's action, the same decision almost surely would have been reached. In any case, when the decision was announced, Strauss, considering that he had accomplished as much as he could in his role as commissioner, submitted his resignation that same day. Within

791-533: A fool at first. But if you go on disagreeing with him, he concludes you must be a traitor." Strauss was increasingly unhappy in his position, but President Truman indicated satisfaction with Strauss's work and the minority stances that he was taking on the commission. The first atomic-bomb test by the Soviet Union in August 1949 came earlier than expected by Americans, and, over the next several months, there

904-566: A good job of making war materials. The program proved popular and helped the United States ramp up production quickly in case it entered the war; by the end of 1941 the Bureau of Ordnance had given the "E" to 94 different defense contractors. It was adopted across all services in 1942 as the Army-Navy "E" Award , and over the course of the war over 4,000 of them were granted. (Strauss's biographer has depicted Strauss as also helping to investigate

1017-559: A home in the country. Kahn's original country home, Cedar Grove, a gift from his father-in-law and designed by Carrère and Hastings was in Morristown, New Jersey . Although a resident there for a number of years and a business associate of many of his neighbors, antisemitism was still prevalent and Kahn was never accepted by Morristown society. Social rejection led him to move to Long Island and his New Jersey estate ultimately became home to Honeywell . By 1919, Kahn had assembled

1130-421: A job. In so doing, Strauss turned down an offer to become comptroller for the newly forming League of Nations . Strauss returned to the United States and started at Kuhn Loeb in 1919. As a result, he never did attend college, a fact that may have led to the perfectionist and defensive personality traits that he exhibited later in life. Kuhn Loeb's major customers were railroads, and by the mid-1920s, Strauss

1243-693: A note and told him what a star I would make. He sent it back and marked it 'Opened by mistake.'" He was parodied as Roscoe W. Chandler in the stage and film versions of the Marx Brothers ' Animal Crackers . Kahn was chairman of the New York committee of the Shakespeare Tercentenary (1916). He was elected to honorary membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity by the Fraternity's Alpha Chapter at

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1356-551: A partner and Executive Director of the firm. The firm's fortunes began to fade in the years following World War II. Wall Street was changing and shifting away from relationship banking. Kuhn, Loeb's world of gentlemen bankers was gradually being replaced by a more aggressive, transaction-oriented Wall Street, with underwriters entering the trenches and selling securities directly to the public—territory Kuhn, Loeb stubbornly refused to enter. When asked how many people worked at Kuhn, Loeb, one partner famously quipped, "about half". Such

1469-614: A result, Strauss often has been regarded as a villain in American history. President Dwight D. Eisenhower 's nomination of Strauss to become U.S. secretary of commerce resulted in a prolonged, public political battle in 1959 where Strauss was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate . Strauss was born in Charleston, West Virginia , the son of Rosa (née Lichtenstein) and Lewis Strauss, a successful shoe wholesaler . Their parents were Jewish emigrants from Germany and Austria who came to

1582-416: A traveling shoe salesman for his father's company. In his spare time, Strauss studied his Jewish heritage. He was quite successful in his sales efforts; over the next three years, he saved $ 20,000 (equivalent to $ 476,000 in 2023): enough money to cover college tuition now that the scholarship offer was no longer in effect. Strauss's mother encouraged him to perform public or humanitarian service. It

1695-607: A while, the situation for Jews in Poland did (temporarily) improve. Strauss had grown up in Virginia, in a culture that venerated Southern military heroes of the " War Between the States ", but a tour he took in summer 1918 to the devastated battlefields of Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood disabused him of any romantic illusions about the glory of warfare. Similarly, his exposure to effects of Communism in 1919, as manifested in

1808-534: Is his uncanny lookalike persona that purportedly became the iconic mascot for the Monopoly board game. However, the family of the illustrator Daniel Fox, who in 1936 created the mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags for the Monopoly board game, in 2013, credited J. P. Morgan as being the inspiration for the character. As was typical for men of his stature of the era, Kahn maintained both a New York City residence and

1921-491: The American Federation of Arts . He supported many artists, including Hart Crane , George Gershwin and Arturo Toscanini . He was also smitten with Hollywood , to which Kuhn Loeb provided much commercial support and Kahn, personal support. In her second full-length film, Be Yourself , Fanny Brice sang a song that mentioned Kahn: "Is something the matter with Otto Kahn, or is something wrong with me? I wrote

2034-541: The Armistice of 11 November 1918 , Hoover became head of the post-war American Relief Administration , headquartered in Paris, and Strauss joined him there once more as his private secretary. Acting on behalf of a nearly destitute diplomatic representative of Finland, Rudolf Holsti , whom he met in Paris, Strauss persuaded Hoover to urge President Woodrow Wilson to recognize Finland's independence from Russia . Besides

2147-496: The Chief of Naval Operations . A proposed promotion for Strauss in 1944 to rear admiral did not happen at the time due to a variety of factors, including that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had disliked Strauss for years, going back to an incident at an Inner Circle event in 1932, and blocked the move. Roosevelt's death changed matters, as his successor, Harry S. Truman , had no negative feelings about Strauss. In July 1945 Strauss

2260-583: The Cold War , Strauss emphasized the need to protect U.S. atomic secrets and to monitor and stay ahead of atomic developments within the Soviet Union . Accordingly, he was a strong proponent of developing the hydrogen bomb . During his stint as chairman of the AEC, Strauss urged the development of peaceful uses of atomic energy, and he predicted that atomic power would make electricity " too cheap to meter ". At

2373-759: The Commission for Relief in Belgium during World War I and the American Relief Administration after that. Strauss then worked as an investment banker at Kuhn, Loeb & Co. during the 1920s and 1930s, where he amassed considerable wealth. As a member of the executive committee of the American Jewish Committee and several other Jewish organizations in the 1930s, Strauss made several attempts to change U.S. policy in order to accept more refugees from Nazi Germany but

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2486-1268: The Government/Corporate index, was among the first generation of bond index data to measure the fixed income market. It is still the preeminent benchmark in its class. The following is an illustration of the company's mergers and its role in later successor firms, notably Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb , Shearson Lehman Brothers and later Lehman Brothers (this is not a comprehensive list): American Express (est. 1850) Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt (formerly Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill, est. 1960) Hayden, Stone & Co. Shearson, Hammill & Co. (est. 1902) Carl M. Loeb & Co. (est. 1931) Rhoades & Company (est. 1905) Hornblower & Weeks (est. 1888) Hemphill, Noyes & Co. (est. 1919, acq. 1963) Spencer Trask & Co. (est. 1866 as Trask & Brown) Paul H. Davis & Co. (est. 1920, acq. 1953) Lehman Brothers (est. 1850) Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (est. 1867) Abraham & Co. (est. 1938, acq. 1975) E. F. Hutton & Co. (est. 1904) ** First non-family member to be admitted to

2599-532: The Lehman Brothers history, a period of bitter internal strife ended in 1984 when the firm sold itself to Shearson / American Express , itself the product of a recent merger between American Express and Sandy Weill's , Shearson Loeb Rhoades . The combined firms then dropped the Kuhn, Loeb name and became known as Shearson Lehman/American Express, ending Kuhn, Loeb's almost 120 years on Wall Street. Later,

2712-470: The Manhattan Project . At the end of the war, when the first atomic bombs were ready for use, Strauss advocated to Forrestal dropping one on a symbolic target, such as a Japanese cedar grove near Nikkō, Tochigi , as a warning shot . In subsequent years Strauss would say in interviews, "I did my best to prevent it. The Japanese were defeated before the bomb was used." After the war, Strauss

2825-740: The New England Conservatory in 1917 and of the French Theatre of New York and a founder and later treasurer of the New Theatre Company. Otto's son, Roger Wolfe Kahn , was a popular jazz musician and bandleader of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Kahn's daughter, Margaret, married John Barry Ryan II and was a New York society doyenne and benefactor of the Metropolitan Opera . It is sometimes claimed that one of Otto Kahn's most enduring achievements

2938-604: The Northern Pacific Railroad . The firm was long associated with many of America's emerging industrial giants, providing financial backing for Westinghouse and Western Union , as well as innovative consumer giants like the Polaroid Corporation . The firm also enjoyed respect as a trusted adviser overseas, providing services to numerous foreign governments, including the governments of Austria, Finland, Mexico and Venezuela. It also acted as

3051-675: The Office of Naval Research , which kept scientific research of naval matters under control of the Navy rather than civilian or academic organizations. Strauss's contributions were recognized by the Navy and by 1945 he was serving on the Army-Navy Munitions Board, a role that concluded by the following year. He was also on the Naval Reserve Policy Board starting in 1946. Earlier during the war, Strauss

3164-551: The Pearson - Farquhar syndicate when it found itself in deep water in an attempt to combine several existing lines of railroad into a South American transcontinental system. When American International Corporation was forming, Kahn took an active part in the negotiations, and brought them to a successful issue. Kahn conducted negotiations which led to the opening of the doors of the Paris Bourse to American securities and

3277-657: The Quebec Agreement of the Manhattan Project era). During the U.S. presidential election of 1948 , Strauss tried to convince the Republican Party nominee, Thomas E. Dewey , of the dangers of sharing atomic information with Britain, and, after Dewey lost, Strauss tried to convince President Truman of the same. Following the revelations about the British physicist Klaus Fuchs 's espionage for

3390-614: The United States presidential election, 1920 ; Strauss campaigned for him and attended the 1920 Republican National Convention on his behalf, but Hoover failed to gain significant support. Strauss again worked for the this-time-successful campaign of Hoover in the United States presidential election, 1928 , and was a member from Virginia that year of the Republican National Committee . Over several years, Strauss engaged in activities designed to strengthen

3503-552: The United States presidential election, 1932 , Strauss was a strong opponent of the New Deal . He shared this antipathy with Hoover, who increasingly adopted an ideologically conservative, anti-New Deal viewpoint in the years following his defeat. Strauss was active in Kuhn Loeb until 1941, although he resented restrictions imposed on investment banking by regulators in the Roosevelt administration and derived less enjoyment from

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3616-521: The notorious failures of U.S. torpedoes during the war and coordinate development of the very secret and highly successful anti-aircraft VT (proximity) fuse ; however histories of these efforts do not indicate that Strauss played a significant role. ) When James V. Forrestal succeeded Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy in May 1944, he employed Strauss as his special assistant. In conjunction with Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, Strauss established

3729-521: The AEC, he had a consulting arrangement with the United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and was active in making his opinion known on various matters. These included his dissatisfaction with the speed at which research and development into actually making a working hydrogen device was taking place. In the 1952 U.S. presidential election , Strauss originally supported Robert A. Taft, his friend from

3842-493: The Coordinating Foundation, that would be set up to effectively pay Germany an immense ransom in exchange for their allowing Jews to emigrate; that too did not happen. Strauss received many individual requests for help, but often was unable to. Decades later, Strauss wrote in his memoir: "The years from 1933 to the outbreak of World War II will ever be a nightmare to me, and the puny efforts I made to alleviate

3955-787: The German-Jewish elite was common. Consequently, the partners of Kuhn, Loeb were closely related by blood and marriage to the partners of J & W Seligman , Speyer & Co. , Goldman, Sachs & Co. , Lehman Brothers and other prominent German-Jewish firms. Prior to the Second World War, a particularly close relationship existed between the partners of Kuhn, Loeb and M. M. Warburg & Co. of Hamburg, Germany , through Paul and Felix, who were Kuhn, Loeb partners. Later on, following World War II, their cousin Sigmund Warburg would briefly continue this relationship as

4068-568: The Graham-Eckes School. In the 2000s, it was acquired by businessman Robert Cohen and returned to private use. In 1927, Kahn commissioned German boat builder Lürssen to build a high-speed motor yacht for use on the river Rhine and in the North Sea . Designed using a classical round bottomed hull, she had a composite wooden plank over alloy metal frame structure. But innovative hull design meant that her hull flattened towards

4181-547: The Hoover days, for the Republican Party nomination. Once Dwight D. Eisenhower secured the nomination, however, Strauss contributed substantial monies towards Eisenhower's campaign. In January 1953, President Eisenhower named Strauss as presidential atomic energy advisor. Then in July 1953, Eisenhower named Strauss as chairman of the AEC. While Strauss had initially opposed Eisenhower's push for Operation Candor , his view and

4294-494: The Kuhn, Loeb name is probably gone forever, the firm's legacy is not. Former Kuhn, Loeb employees remain in senior positions throughout Wall Street, and until recently, at Lehman Brothers. Vestiges of the firm survived in the form of Lehman Brothers' extensive fixed income capabilities, including many of their bond indices , such as the Government/Credit index. This index, originally created in 1973 by Kuhn, Loeb, as

4407-719: The New York City community. In particular, he was on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company and later the Metropolitan Opera Association and was also on the boards of the American Relief Administration and the American Children's Fund. He was a member of American Bankers Association and New York State Chamber of Commerce . Hoover was a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in

4520-644: The Polish–Soviet War, led to a powerful and lifelong anti-Communist sentiment. At the JDC, Strauss came to the attention of Felix M. Warburg , a JDC leader who was a partner in the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in New York City , and Harriet Loewentstein, a JDC European head who was an accountant at the bank. In addition Hoover had introduced Strauss to Mortimer Schiff , another partner at Kuhn Loeb, who interviewed Strauss in Paris and offered him

4633-563: The Republican Party in Virginia and the South overall. He also was committed to protecting the reputation of President Hoover; in 1930, on behalf of the White House, he conspired with two naval intelligence officers to illegally break into the office of a Tammany Hall follower in New York who was thought to hold documents that would be damaging to Hoover. During the 1930s, following Hoover's re-election defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in

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4746-553: The Soviet Union and the appointment of the former Marxist John Strachey as Secretary of State for War in the British Cabinet, Strauss argued that the Modus Vivendi should be suspended completely, but no other commissioner wanted to go to that extreme. Strauss was known for his psychological rigidity; one of his fellow commissioners reportedly said, "If you disagree with Lewis about anything, he assumes you're just

4859-627: The Soviets and in maintaining secrecy about U.S. nuclear activities. This extended to allies: Among the commissioners, he was the most skeptical about the value of the Modus Vivendi to which the United States, Britain, and Canada agreed in January 1948 that provided for limited sharing of technical information between the three nations (and that already was a stricter set of guidelines than those established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in

4972-713: The U.S. food relief organization, Strauss worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to relieve the suffering of Jewish refugees, who were often neglected by other bodies. Strauss acted as a liaison between Hoover's organization and JDC workers in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. Getting news in April 1919 of the Pinsk massacre , during the Polish–Soviet War , in which 35 Jews meeting to discuss

5085-408: The United States in the 1830s and 1840s and settled in Virginia. His family moved to Richmond, Virginia , and he grew up and attended public schools there. At the age of ten, he lost much of the vision in his right eye in a rock fight, which later disqualified him from normal military service. Having developed an amateur's knowledge from reading textbooks, Strauss planned to study physics . He

5198-400: The United States transferred control of atomic research from the U.S. Army to civilian authority under the newly created Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). In October 1946, in advance of the commission actually coming into being, Strauss was named by President Truman as one of the first five Commissioners, with David E. Lilienthal as the chairman. Strauss had been recommended for a position on

5311-675: The United States. The couple had eight children and Otto was the third son. He married Adelaide Wolff on January 8, 1896. They had four children: Maud; Margaret, whose daughter Virginia Ryan became Virginia Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie ; Gilbert; and Roger Wolff Kahn . Kahn was buried in the St. John's Memorial Cemetery in Laurel Hollow, New York . Lewis Strauss Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss ( / ˈ s t r ɔː z / STRAWZ ; January 31, 1896 – January 21, 1974)

5424-705: The ablest reorganizer of railroads in the United States. He applied himself to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , the Missouri Pacific Railroad , the Wabash Railroad , the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad , the Texas and Pacific Railroad , and other systems. More than once, his prompt and vigorous action averted an imminent financial panic. A notable instance was his rescuing from collapse

5537-514: The administration's goals both evolved, and he endorsed the " Atoms for Peace " program, which Eisenhower announced in December 1953. Strauss was now one of the best-known advocates of atomic energy for many purposes. In part, he celebrated the promise of peaceful use of atomic energy as part of a conscious effort to divert attention away from the dangers of nuclear warfare. Nevertheless, Strauss, like Eisenhower, did sincerely believe in and hope for

5650-607: The administration, there was some consideration given to Strauss being named chairman of the AEC to replace the departing Lilienthal, but Strauss was considered too polarizing a figure. The last day for Strauss during this first stint of his on the commission was April 15, 1950. Beginning in June 1950, Strauss became a financial adviser to the Rockefeller brothers , where his charter was to participate in decisions regarding projects, financing, and investing. For them, he assisted in

5763-626: The arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and was sometimes referred to as the "King of New York". In business, he was best known as a partner at Kuhn, Loeb & Co. who reorganized and consolidated railroads. In his personal life, he was a great patron of the arts, where among things, he served as the chairman of the Metropolitan Opera . Otto was born on February 21, 1867, in Mannheim , Grand Duchy of Baden , and raised there, by his Jewish parents, Emma (née Eberstadt) and Bernard Kahn. His father had been among

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5876-734: The bank's loans to the Chinese and Imperial Japanese governments. The firm also joined a partnership with Rockefeller in 1911 to gain control of the Equitable Trust Company, which was later to merge and become the Chase Bank . Famous partners of the firm included Otto Kahn , Paul Warburg , Felix Warburg , Mortimer Schiff , Benjamin Buttenwieser , Abraham Wolff, Lewis Strauss , and Sigmund Warburg , founder of S.G. Warburg . In its early years, intermarriage among

5989-419: The banking community during four days of testimony before the United States Senate 's Pecora Commission hearings into the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . The Senate's lead counsel Ferdinand Pecora wrote on page 293 in his 1939 memoir Wall Street Under Oath about Otto Kahn: "No suaver, more fluent, and more diplomatic advocate could be conceived. If anyone could succeed in presenting the customs and functions of

6102-407: The body by Vice Admiral Paul Frederick Foster , a long-time friend for whom Strauss earlier had provided contacts in the business world (and who had subsequently helped Strauss get his active duty assignment). In their initial discussion about the appointment, Strauss noted to the New Deal-supporting Truman that "I am a black Hoover Republican." Truman said that was of no matter, since the commission

6215-412: The business. Nonetheless, in his role as an investment banker Strauss had become vastly wealthy, and given his humble original circumstances he has been considered a self-made millionaire and a Horatio Alger tale. As one historian has written, Strauss's business success was the residue of "luck, pluck, hard work, and good contacts". Strauss's biographer reaches a similar conclusion: "Strauss reached

6328-432: The combined firm purchased E.F. Hutton , becoming Shearson Lehman Hutton. Ultimately, however, American Express could not make the pieces of its financial services supermarket work. In 1993, under then newly appointed CEO, Harvey Golub , the firm sold its retail brokerage operations to Primerica . In 1994, it spun off a beleaguered Lehman Brothers as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., in an initial public offering. Although

6441-498: The conference fell apart over the issue of Zionism. Following the November 1938 Kristallnacht attacks on Jews in Germany, Strauss attempted to persuade prominent Republicans to support the Wagner–Rogers Bill that would legislatively allow the entry of 20,000 German refugee children into the United States. Long allied with both Hoover and Taft, he asked each of them to support the bill. Hoover did, but Taft did not, telling Strauss, "With millions of people out of work, I can't see

6554-509: The congregation was absorbing the merger of Temple Beth-El . Strauss succeeded in Washington's social and political circles despite that environment being notoriously anti-Semitic at the time. Indeed, experiences with anti-Semitism may have contributed to the outsider perspective and fractious personality that became evident during his later career. He was proud of his Southern upbringing as well as his religion, and insisted his name be pronounced in Virginia fashion as "straws" rather than with

6667-435: The days of the gentleman-banker had passed. The firm lost its independence from the Bulge Bracket in 1977 when it merged with Lehman Brothers , creating Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. The combined firm was itself acquired in 1984 by American Express , forming Shearson Lehman/American Express and with that, the "Kuhn, Loeb" name was retired. Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was an investment bank located in New York City . It

6780-454: The departure of EMA, vandals repeatedly set fire to the building, but because Kahn had insisted on constructing a concrete, brick and steel structure, the house survived. In 1984 a local developer, Gary Melius, purchased the estate for $ 1.5 million and began the largest private renovation project ever attempted in the United States. Today, Oheka is used as a catering facility, hotel and conference center. Following his acquisition in 1913 of

6893-459: The distribution of American relief aid were summarily executed by the Polish Army in the belief that they were Bolshevik conspirators, Strauss pressed the case to Hoover that a forceful response must be made to the Polish government. Hoover spoke to Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski and demanded a fair investigation, but Strauss saw Paderewski as an anti-Semite who believed that all Jews were Bolsheviks and all Bolsheviks were Jews. After

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7006-462: The firm's financing for steel companies such as Inland Steel , Republic Steel , and Great Lakes Steel . He became a full partner in 1929, at which point he was making a million dollars a year, and he endured the Wall Street Crash of 1929 without significant financial damage. With the firm he helped bring to market Kodachrome film for Eastman Kodak and the Polaroid camera for Edwin H. Land . On March 5, 1923, Strauss married Alice Hanauer in

7119-505: The firm. He eventually became its leader and grew the firm into the second most prestigious investment bank in the United States behind J. Pierpont Morgan's J.P. Morgan & Co. The firm grew to prominence during the railroad era in the United States. Americans saw great hope and promise in railroads and investors saw great opportunities to profit. Kuhn, Loeb, like all investment banks, brought capital together with commercial opportunity. Its first meaningful entry into railroad financing

7232-550: The founding of, and served on the first board for, the Population Council . He was also involved in the negotiations with Columbia University that led to a sale and leasing back of real estate associated with part of Rockefeller Center . The relationship with the Rockefeller brothers would last until 1953. However, Strauss felt that the brothers treated him as a second-class asset and, in turn, he felt no loyalty towards them. During this time, Strauss continued to take an interest in atomic affairs; as did other former members of

7345-414: The late 1940s, an upscale housing development was constructed there and in 1948, the Eastern Military Academy (EMA) purchased the mansion and 23 acres (9.3 ha) around it. (One of the former EMA cadets has written his memories going to school there.) By the time the school went bankrupt thirty years later, the gardens had been bulldozed, its rooms subdivided and the paneled walls painted over. Following

7458-417: The latter seems more likely. ) Hoover became chief of the United States Food Administration . Strauss worked well and soon was promoted to Hoover's private secretary and confidant. In that position he made powerful contacts that would serve him later on. One such contact he made was with attorney Harvey Hollister Bundy . Another was with Robert A. Taft , a counsel for the Food Administration. Following

7571-432: The leading investment house for John D. Rockefeller , through the guidance of his investment adviser, Frederick T. Gates . Rockefeller invested in many syndicates with the bank, including major stakes in the prominent railroad companies, as well as contributing to its consolidation of the Chicago meatpackers, which resulted in the formation of a leading trust. Overseas ventures that Rockefeller also got involved with included

7684-411: The listing there of $ 50,000,000 Pennsylvania bonds in 1906, the first official listing of American securities in Paris . Also he had a large share later in the negotiations which resulted in the issue by Kuhn, Loeb and Company of $ 50,000,000 of City of Paris bonds and $ 60,000,000 Bordeaux-Lyons and Marseilles bonds. In 1933, the smooth and affable Kahn successfully disarmed antagonism against members of

7797-616: The logic of admitting others." The bill had considerable popular support, but eventually failed to move forward in Congress due to opposition from the American Legion , the Daughters of the American Revolution , and other immigration restrictionists. At the same time, Strauss joined with Hoover and Bernard Baruch in supporting the establishment of a refugee state in Africa as a safe haven for all persecuted people, not just Jews, and pledged ten percent of his wealth towards it. This effort too failed to materialize. Still another scheme that involved Strauss concerned an international corporation,

7910-443: The matter to President Truman directly. It was as a consequence of this meeting that Truman first learned (when Souers informed him) that such a thing as a hydrogen bomb could exist. In a memorandum urging development of the Super that he sent to President Truman on November 25, 1949, the pious Strauss expressed no doubt about what the Soviets would do, writing that "a government of atheists is not likely to be dissuaded from producing

8023-455: The partnership. ^ Indicates status as former managing partner Kuhn, Loeb & Co., had a number of homes throughout its existence: In 1867 Kuhn, Loeb & Co., was reputed to have been capitalized at $ 500,000.00. In today's dollars, versus various benchmarks, this would be equal to: Otto Kahn Otto Hermann Kahn (February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was an American investment banker , collector , philanthropist , and patron of

8136-624: The post-war establishment in the capital. He also was learning how to get things accomplished in Washington via unofficial back channels, something at which he would become quite adept. Strauss's mother died of cancer in 1935, and his father of the same disease in 1937. That and his early interest in physics led Strauss to establish a fund in their names, the Lewis and Rosa Strauss Memorial Fund, for physics research that could lead to better radiation treatment for cancer patients. The fund supported

8249-536: The potential of peaceful uses. In 1955 Strauss helped arrange the U.S. participation in the first international conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy, held in Geneva. Strauss held Soviet capabilities in high regard, saying after the conference that "in the realm of pure science the Soviets had astonished us by their achievements ... [the Russians] could be described in no sense as technically backward." Strauss

8362-440: The prestigious Shoreham Hotel . She served as an operating room nurse's aide during this period. During 1941, Strauss recommended actions to improve inspectors' abilities and consolidate field inspections into one General Inspectors' Office that was independent of the Navy's bureau system ; these changes took hold by the following year. Strauss organized a morale-boosting effort to award "E for Excellence" awards to plants doing

8475-706: The private bankers in a favorable and prepossessing light, it was he." Kahn was a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and of Rutgers College . He was a director in numerous corporations, including the Equitable Trust Co. of New York and the Union Pacific Railroad. During the last years of Kahn's life he became increasingly frail and suffered from arteriosclerosis , high blood pressure and attacks of angina pectoris. On March 29, 1934, following lunch in

8588-498: The private dining room of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Kahn suffered a massive heart attack and died, aged 67. Funeral services were held in the music room of his Long Island estate, followed by a burial in nearby St. John's Memorial Cemetery. An extremely wealthy financier, Kahn was president and chairman of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera , vice-president of the New York Philharmonic and treasurer for

8701-508: The property at 1 East 91st Street in New York City from Andrew Carnegie , Kahn commissioned J. Armstrong Stenhouse and C. P. H. Gilbert to design his Carnegie Hill mansion . The home, an 80-room Italian Renaissance-palazzo style mansion, was modeled after the Cancelleria in Rome . Completed in 1918, it served as Kahn's New York City residence until his death. Shortly thereafter, the house

8814-604: The rear third, and with her three 500 hp Maybach engines positioned forward in her 22.5-meter (74 ft) hull, the resultant counterbalance and high power gave her a 34-knot top speed, the highest in her class for the day. Oheka II came to the notice of the German Navy, resulting in their development of the Schnellboot high speed torpedo craft within the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles . Kahn's father

8927-406: The refugee German physicist Arno Brasch , who was working on producing artificial radioactive material with bursts of X-rays . Brasch's work was based on previous work with Leo Szilard , who saw in this work a possible means to developing an atomic chain reaction . Szilard already had foreseen that this could lead to an atomic bomb . Szilard persuaded Strauss to support him and Brasch in building

9040-478: The refugees to the United States after the revolution of 1848 and had become an American citizen, but later returned to Germany. Kahn was educated in a gymnasium in Mannheim. Kahn's ambition was to be a musician, and he learned to play several instruments before he graduated from the gymnasium. His father however, had other plans. As one of eight children, a career path had been laid for each one. At 17, Kahn

9153-481: The rights of Jews to live as equal and integral citizens of the nations in which they resided. Strauss fully recognized the brutality of Nazi Germany . He first made his concern known in early 1933, writing to President Hoover during the final weeks of Hoover's time in office. Strauss attended a London conference of concerned Jews later that year on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, but

9266-468: The same time, he downplayed the possible health effects of radioactive fallout such as that experienced by Pacific Islanders following the Castle Bravo thermonuclear test. Strauss was the driving force behind physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer 's security clearance hearing , held in April and May 1954 before an AEC Personnel Security Board, in which Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked. As

9379-453: The super." In particular, Strauss was unswayed by moral arguments against going forward, seeing no real difference between using it and the atomic bomb or the boosted fission weapon that some opponents of the Super were advocating as an alternative. When Strauss was rebuffed by the other commissioners, he went to National Security Council executive secretary Sidney Souers in order to bring

9492-432: The test. While Strauss was not the only person who had been urging long-range detection capabilities, it was largely due to his efforts that the United States was able to discover that the Soviet Union had become a nuclear power. Strauss believed in a fundamental premise of the Cold War : that the Soviet Union was determined on a course of world domination. As such, he believed in having a more powerful nuclear force than

9605-468: The top because of his ability, ambition, choices of the right firm and the right wife, and the good luck to start out at a prosperous time." Due to his lack of higher education, Strauss has also been characterized as an autodidact . A proudly religious man, Strauss became a leader in Jewish causes and organizations. In 1933 he was a member of the executive committee of the American Jewish Committee . He

9718-422: The tragedies were utter failures, save in a few individual cases—pitifully few." Strauss was president of Congregation Emanu-El of New York , the largest such in New York City, for a decade, from 1938 to 1948. He was named to the presidency to replace Judge Irving Lehman , after having previously been chair of the temple's finance committee. He had first joined the board of trustees of the temple in 1929, when

9831-442: The upper atmosphere and detect any atomic tests by the Soviet Union. Other people in government and science, including physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller , argued that the radiological approach would not work, but Strauss and the newly formed United States Air Force continued regardless. Several days after the first atomic bomb test by the Soviet Union in August 1949, a WB-29 flight did, in fact, find evidence of

9944-474: The use of neutrons . In February 1940, Szilard asked him to fund the acquisition of some radium , but Strauss refused, as he had already spent a large sum. Strauss had no further direct involvement with atomic energy developments during the war. Indeed, he was frustrated by Harvey Hollister Bundy, his colleague from the Food Administration days, who kept Strauss away from information regarding

10057-444: The usual German pronunciation. Despite his medical disqualification for regular military duty, Strauss applied to join the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1925, becoming effective 1926, and he received an officer's commission as a lieutenant intelligence officer. He remained in the reserve as a lieutenant commander . In 1939 and 1940, as World War II began overseas, he volunteered for active duty. He wanted to go into intelligence but

10170-485: The weapon on 'moral' grounds." On January 31, 1950, Truman announced his decision to go forward with hydrogen-bomb development. A few narratives, including ones promoted by Strauss and that of Strauss's biographer, have placed Strauss as having had a central role in Truman's decision. However, by the time that the decision was made, Strauss was one of an increasingly large coalition of military and government figures, and

10283-467: Was 1917; World War I was continuing to devastate parts of Europe and Herbert Hoover had become a symbol of humanitarian altruism by way of heading the Commission for Relief in Belgium . Accordingly, Strauss took the train to Washington, D.C., and talked his way into serving without pay as an assistant to Hoover. (Strauss and his biographer differ on whether this happened in February or May 1917, but

10396-406: Was Bernhard Kahn, a son of Michael Kahn and Franziska Baer, a German-Jewish industrialist and banker who participated in the 1848 Revolt , and was condemned to death. He escaped to the United States, was naturalized an American citizen, and then returned to Germany ten years later to court and on October 17, 1860, married Emma Stephanie Eberstadt, whom he married on the condition that he not return to

10509-485: Was Kahn's calm, good-humored, almost gentle deportment. Kahn, although only 30 years old, took an almost equal part with Harriman in the gigantic task of reorganizing the Union Pacific Railroad , a work which in its early stages had been handled by Schiff. Kahn proved his ability to analyze mathematically and scientifically the problems that were constantly presented. Kahn was soon to be acknowledged as

10622-532: Was a partner. In 1917, Kahn gave up his British nationality and became a United States citizen. Besides his father-in-law, Kahn's other partners included Jacob Schiff , himself the son-in-law of Solomon Loeb , who co-founded the firm, and Paul and Felix Warburg . Almost immediately, Kahn was thrown into contact with railroad builder E. H. Harriman . In spite of sharply-defined differences in temperament and method, they became as brothers. In opposition to Harriman's gruff, domineering, aggressive manner in business,

10735-827: Was active in the Jewish Agricultural Society, for whom by 1941 he was honorary president. By 1938 he was also active in the Palestine Development Council, the Baron de Hirsch Fund , and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations . However, he was not a Zionist and opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine . He did not view Jews as belonging to a nation or a race; he considered himself an American of Jewish religion, and consequently he advocated for

10848-635: Was an American government official, businessman, philanthropist, and naval officer. He was one of the original members of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1946 and he served as the commission's chair in the 1950s. Strauss was a major figure in the development of nuclear weapons after World War II , nuclear energy policy , and nuclear power in the United States . Raised in Richmond, Virginia , Strauss became an assistant to Herbert Hoover as part of

10961-440: Was an intense debate within the U.S. government, military, and scientific communities regarding whether to proceed with development of the far more powerful hydrogen bomb , then known as "the Super". Strauss urged for the United States to move immediately to develop it, writing to his fellow commissioners on October 5 that "the time has come for a quantum jump in our planning ... we should make an intensive effort to get ahead with

11074-723: Was blocked, reportedly because the Director of Naval Intelligence, U.S. Navy was prejudiced against Jews and because Strauss's contributions to B'nai B'rith had aroused suspicion on the part of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and others in the U.S. intelligence community. Instead, in February 1941, he was called to active duty, and was assigned as a Staff Assistant to the Chief at the Bureau of Ordnance , where he helped organize and manage Navy munitions work. Strauss and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. , where they lived in an apartment at

11187-455: Was designed by Olmsted Brothers, sons of Frederick Law Olmsted of Brookline, Massachusetts . The property featured a golf course, a working farm, a private airstrip, and numerous outbuildings. Following Kahn's death in 1934, the property was sold to the City of New York for use as a retreat for sanitation workers and then later a government training school for merchant marine radio operators. In

11300-572: Was founded in 1867, by Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb . Kuhn and Loeb had created a successful merchandising business in Cincinnati , Ohio , when they decided to move east, to New York, to take advantage of the country's burgeoning economic expansion. Company records indicate that by the time Kuhn and Loeb established their partnership, they were able to capitalize it at $ 500,000 (equivalent of about $ 10.9 million in 2023). On January 1, 1875, Jacob Schiff (1847–1920), Solomon Loeb's son-in-law, joined

11413-552: Was helping to arrange financing for new railroad terminal buildings in Cincinnati and Richmond and for the reorganizations of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad . By 1926 his yearly compensation from the firm had reached $ 75,000 (equivalent to $ 1,291,000 in 2023) and by the next year, $ 120,000 (equivalent to $ 2,105,000 in 2023). Subsequently, Strauss arranged

11526-607: Was in 1877 when it raised funds for the Chicago and North Western Railroad , and several years later, in 1881, for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad . Schiff was instrumental in the reorganization of the Union Pacific in 1897, helping to place the firm on sound financial footing. In 1901, with Kuhn, Loeb's financial support, E. H. Harriman famously battled James Jerome Hill and J.P. Morgan to acquire control of

11639-405: Was in a 1–4 minority on the commission; in the process, he increasingly was perceived as stubborn. One of Strauss's first actions on the AEC was to urge his fellow commissioners to set up the capability to monitor foreign atomic activity via atmospheric testing. In particular, he saw that WB-29 Superfortress aircraft equipped with radiological tests could run regular "sniffer" flights to monitor

11752-404: Was intended to be non-political. Strauss, who briefly had returned to work at Kuhn Loeb after the war, now exited the firm altogether in order to comply with AEC regulations. Once there, Strauss became one of the first commissioners to speak in dissent from existing policy. In the first two years, there were a dozen instances, most having to do with information-security matters, in which Strauss

11865-712: Was involved in finding the site and industry partners for the start of construction, in 1954, of the first dedicated U.S. atomic electric power plant, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania; it would eventually go on-line in 1957. While Shippingport was a joint government-commercial collaboration, Strauss advocated for private industry taking on the development of nuclear power plants on its own. Strauss made public remarks in 1954 predicting that atomic power would make electricity " too cheap to meter ". Regarded as fanciful even at

11978-471: Was life at Kuhn, Loeb, resting on its laurels, while Wall Street passed it by. In 1977, facing a capital crisis, the firm succumbed and merged with Lehman Brothers , to form Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. Internationally, the merged firms were known as Kuhn Loeb Lehman Brothers Inc., in recognition Kuhn Loeb's superior international reputation. The merger did not, however, prove to be the panacea to what ailed Kuhn, Loeb. Indeed, as detailed more closely in

12091-572: Was on track to be valedictorian of his class at John Marshall High School , which would have entitled him to a scholarship to the University of Virginia , but typhoid fever in his senior year made him unable to take final exams or graduate with his classmates. By the time he finally graduated from high school, his family's business had experienced a downturn during the Recession of 1913–1914 . In order to help out, Strauss decided to work as

12204-523: Was placed in a bank at Karlsruhe as a junior clerk, where he remained for three years, advancing until he was thoroughly grounded in the intricacies of finance. He then served for a year in the Kaiser's hussars . On leaving the army he went to the London agency of Deutsche Bank , where he remained for five years. He displayed such unusual talent that he became second-in-command when he had been there but

12317-504: Was promoted to commodore . Then in November 1945, after the war, Strauss was promoted to rear admiral by Truman. The promotion to flag rank was unusual for a member of the reserve, and as such, he liked being addressed as "Admiral Strauss", even though use of the honorific perturbed some regular officers, who considered him a civilian. By this time, Strauss had taken advantage of his ties in both Washington and Wall Street to enter

12430-527: Was promoted to commander, then by November 1943 was a captain. He rose in rank and influence due to a combination of his intelligence, personal energy, and ability to find favor in higher places. Strauss's rigid manner managed to make enemies during the war as well, including significant disputes with E. N. Toland, chief counsel for the House Committee on Naval Affairs ; Representative Carl Vinson , chair of that committee; and Admiral Ernest J. King ,

12543-630: Was sold to the Convent of the Sacred Heart , an independent Catholic girls school. In 1974 the house was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission . In Palm Beach, Florida , Kahn built a summer home on Sunset Avenue, naming it "Oheka". When this house proved too small, he built another "Oheka" at 691 North County Road. Following his death, this house was used by

12656-486: Was the Navy's representative on the Interdepartmental Committee on Atomic Energy. Strauss recommended a test of the atomic bomb against a number of modern warships, which he thought would refute the idea that the atomic bomb made the Navy obsolete. His recommendation contributed to the decision to hold the mid-1946 Operation Crossroads tests, the first since the war, at Bikini Atoll . In 1947,

12769-407: Was unsuccessful. He also came to know and fund some of the research of refugee nuclear physicist Leo Szilard . During World War II, Strauss served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and rose to the rank of rear admiral due to his work in the Bureau of Ordnance in managing and rewarding plants engaged in production of munitions. As a founding commissioner with the AEC during the early years of

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